Friday, December 16, 2016

We had our first real snowfall of the season last weekend, a half a foot of light, fluffy splendor that transformed the landscape overnight. And with that snow came the first serious cold of the winter, bringing a definitive end to what had been a long, lingering, quite lovely autumn. We had the woodstove blazing 24/7, and thoughts immediately turned to warm, filling, savory comfort cooking. For me, nothing epitomizes that more than a fragrant, crusty and rich cassoulet.

Whether in the iconic brown pot of New England baked beans
crowned with a square of salt pork, a French cassoulet rich with pork rind and lard fume, or Cajun red beans and rice
simmered with ham hocks and sausage, dried beans and pork products go together like,
well, pork and beans.It’s one of those
elementally satisfying combinations.I love almost all
iterations of this classic partnership, from humble baked beans from a can up
to an elaborately garnished, ceremoniously presented cassoulet.But the cassoulet holds a special place in my
heart, being so very…gallic, as well as delicious.

In my younger days I would happily spend two or three days
making a cassoulet that called for pork, pork rind, pork fat, salt pork, and
sausage, along with a couple pounds of lamb and a whole duck.It was a mammoth production, incredibly rich,
delicious, and festive—and I’ll probably never make it again.In some ways, at least as far as the meats
were concerned, that particular cassoulet favored quantity over quality, since
with so many different proteins in play it’s extremely difficult to get
everything to turn out right.And
frankly, at this point in my life, the thought of contending with lamb, duck,
pork, and sausage, all on one plate, leaves me feeling slightly bilious, and
exhausted.

The cassoulet I make nowadays—and I make it a few times from
fall through early spring—is a streamlined version, well garnished with savory
pork, perhaps a leg of duck confit, but much less meat-centric than many.The thing is, I really like beans, and I
consider it the mark of a really good and thoughtful cook to be able to produce
a cassoulet in which the luxuriously coddled beans draw as much praise as the
meats.Though streamlined, this is not a
recipe to throw together for a quickie weeknight dinner (for that, make a big
batch and savor the leftovers).But it
can easily be accomplished in a single day—get the time-consuming pre-simmering
of the beans started after breakfast, and you’ll not be rushed to pull the
crusty, fragrant, unctuous final product out of the oven at dinner time.

One key element of the streamlining is that I don’t soak the
beans overnight, as so many recipes for dried beans suggest.The reason I’ve omitted this step is
simple:it is completely
unnecessary.What I do, instead, is to
parboil the beans for 10 minutes, drain them, discarding the cooking liquid,
and then begin cooking them again, more slowly, with lots of aromatics.Parcooking the beans and dumping the first
water also helps to minimize the digestive difficulties that beans, “the
musical fruit,” can produce.Now that
we’ve saved 12 to 16 hours, as well as potential social embarrassment, let’s
get on with it….

There are beans under there, ready to simmer.

The key to a great cassoulet, as with many bean dishes, and
long-simmered or braised dishes in general, is to use loads of aromatic
vegetables.I tend to think that back in the day cassoulet was sustenance food in which relatively small amounts of very flavorful meats were
used to garnish and enrich a dish predominantly composed of vegetables.Lately cassoulet has become a standard winter
addition to the menus of many gallic-inflected restaurants, and the dish there
presented is often more of a meat-fest than an exaltation of the humble, but delicious,
nourishing, and versatile haricot sec.(There was a recipe for the cassoulet from St Paul’s Heartland
restaurant going around last winter; it called for roughly nine pounds of meat
to garnish one pound of dried beans, and I just thought, woof, that is not my idea of a cassoulet.)

Bacon and pork shoulder browning.

And anyway, cassoulet is not a restaurant dish.It’s a dish you want to soak in all day,
luxuriate in the aromas of simmering duck confit, fall into the warm embrace of
vegetables turning soft and yielding in lovely bacon drippings.On a snowy winter day you want to get your
beans simmering and then go for a brisk walk—or shovel the first real snowfall,
as we had the opportunity to do this past weekend.Then when you come back in, oh, the
smell!The warmth of the house and
kitchen!The anticipation of tucking in,
come dinner time, to such satisfying food!Yes, cassoulet is not just a dish, but an experience.It requires a few steps, but none of it is
difficult.

Roast pork shoulder rests amid yummy drippings.

As to the meats I use in my cassoulet:bacon is essential.I always have a hunk of home-smoked bacon in
the fridge and/or freezer, but good quality slab bacon is widely available
now.Take the time to procure some good,
naturally smoked bacon—it’s one of the flavor backbones of this dish.I also often add a piece of pork shoulder
that I’ve either smoked or roasted.In
either case, I set it to macerate overnight with a rub of salt, pepper, and
maple syrup.Details below.And finally, for the last half hour of
baking, I’ll nestle into the beans either 1) a couple of legs of duck confit
that I have previously set in a skillet to crisp the skin and warm the meat, or
2) some good smoked sausage, also browned in a separate skillet before adding
to the beans.You could add both, but
then things are getting a little meatier than I like.But—you could skip the pork shoulder and do
confit and sausage.That would be
delightful.

Ready for the oven.

Whatever meaty things you choose to garnish your cassoulet
is up to you.The main thing is the
beans, unctuous, savory, yielding.You could
do without added meat altogether, frankly—the basic beans with some crusty warm
bread, a glass of red wine, a salad, this would make a lovely repast.It could, I dare say, even be made
vegetarian, with the addition of some extra vegetables into the mix, and
perhaps something like dried porcini mushrooms or morels to give it added depth
and umami.I tasted a very good
vegetarian cassoulet once, prepared by my friend, the chef Roger Payne.

But hey, you know, those beans aren’t going to cook themselves.Allons-y…

While not the most photogenic of dishes, cassoulet is soul-satisfying fare.

A Snow Day Cassoulet

Serves at least six

For the pork shoulder:

1 pound pork shoulder

2 teaspoons salt

1 ½ tablespoons maple syrup

Black pepper from the mill

2 tablespoons oil, bacon fat, or fat from duck confit

You need to start this at least the night before you plan to
make your cassoulet, but it can be made several days in advance.Rub the pork with the maple syrup and then
sprinkle on the salt on all sides.Give
all surfaces a generous grinding of black pepper.Cover and let stand in the fridge overnight,
or longer.Turn it a couple times during
this time if you think of it.

The next day, heat your oven to 325 degrees.Blot the meat off with paper towels and
discard any liquid that has gathered.Put the pork in a small baking dish (I use an oval ceramic gratin to
both macerate and roast) along with the oil or fat.Roast the pork for 2 hours, or until it is
nicely browned.Turn every 30 minutes or
so to promote even browning.Remove from
the oven and set aside.Be sure to keep
the fat and drippings remaining in the baking dish.We’ll add these to the cassoulet later.

1 pound great northern beans (I've also made cassoulet with cranberry beans; many dried beans would work. I think navy beans are too small.)

¾ cup chopped light green leek tops

1 small shallot, chopped (or use a bit of onion)

1 small carrot, chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 small dried red chile, optional

2 whole cloves

½ teaspoon whole black peppercorns

1 or 2 bay leaves

3-4 sprigs fresh thyme, or ½ teaspoon dried

¾ teaspoon salt

Rinse the beans well and sort through them to remove any
debris or stones (nothing ruins a lovely meal like biting into a rock).In a large saucepan, add the beans and water
to cover by at last an inch.Bring to a
boil, turn down to a simmer, and simmer for 10 minutes.Turn off the heat, cover the pan, and let the
beans sit for another 10 minutes.Drain
the beans, discarding the first cooking liquid.Return the beans to the saucepan along with all the vegetables, spices,
herbs above EXCEPT THE SALT.Again add
water to cover by an inch or so, bring to a boil, then simmer for 30
minutes.Now add the salt and simmer for
30 minutes more.Check the doneness—you
want the beans to be cooked through.Some may be even falling apart, a few may be al dente still, but overall
you want the beans to be DONE at this point.

Set the beans aside when they’re cooked to your
preference.DO NOT DRAIN.

For the final assembly:

4 to 5 ounces good slab bacon, in ¾-inch squares, more or
less

1 tablespoon oil or confit fat

1 small leek—about 1” in diameter—chopped

1 small onion, chopped

1 small carrot, chopped

3 cloves garlic, crushed and chopped

½ cup canned tomatoes, chopped

3 to 4 sprigs fresh thyme or ½ teaspoon dried

Salt and freshly ground pepper

¾ cup fresh breadcrumbs

Duck confit or smoked sausage, optional—I would allow one
confit portion, thigh or drumstick, or about three ounces of sausage per person

Heat your oven to 325.Cut the pork shoulder you previously roasted into 4 pieces.Heat a large dutch oven (enameled cast iron
is ideal) over medium-low heat and add the bacon.As it starts to render its fat, add the pork
shoulder, and get it nice and brown while the bacon cooks.When the bacon and pork shoulder are nicely
brown, remove from the pan.Remove
excess fat from the pan, leaving about 2 tablespoons.Add the leek, onion, and carrot, and cook
these over medium heat until they are well wilted.Add the garlic and cook for another minute,
stirring, then add the tomatoes.Cook,
stirring constantly, until the tomatoes have given up all their moisture and
even begun to brown a bit.Then return
the beans and their cooking liquid to the pan (if you happen to notice the
whole cloves or the now leafless thyme twigs, take those out).The liquid should cover the beans by a
half-inch or so.If it does not, add
water or stock to that level.

Add the bacon and pork shoulder to the pan, along with a
couple more sprigs of thyme and a few grinds of black pepper.Taste the liquid for salt and add a bit of
salt if it seems under-seasoned, but note that it will take up some of the salt
from the bacon and pork as it bakes, so go easy.If you’ve saved the drippings from roasting
the pork shoulder, scrape these into the beans, as well.Bake uncovered for 1 ½ hours, stirring every
half hour or so.Cooking time varies a
lot from one batch of dried beans to the next, so when the cassoulet is done is
a bit of a judgment call.They’re done
when they have taken up most of the liquid and are very tender, but still
holding their shape—well, a good part of them, anyway; some will certainly have
collapsed, and that’s fine.You want the
beans to be a little bit liquid when you declare them done, as they’ll thicken
as they cool.You can take the cassoulet
to this nearly done stage a few hours to a few days before you want to serve
it—it reheats very nicely.

About 30 minutes before you want to serve the cassoulet,
tuck the duck confit or sausage that you’ve crisped/browned into the
beans.Then toss the breadcrumbs with a
tablespoon or so of fat or oil, and stir well to moisten them evenly.Sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the top of the
cassoulet and bake for 20 to 30 minutes, until the crumbs are brown.If you have convection in your oven, this is
a good use for it.

Serve hot from the oven.Make sure everyone gets a portion of the various meats.Serve with crunchy, warm country bread and a
deep red wine—I would go for a Bordeaux, Cahors, Cotes de Rhone, or Rioja.

Friday, May 13, 2016

I’m usually pretty confident when I start to put together a
new dish, because I’ve been cooking for a long time, and because, let’s face
it, most “new” dishes are usually just a tweak or two on an old dish.You swap out an unusual ingredient for a
familiar one, turn an exotic dish local or wild, that sort of thing.You have a basic template and play around
with the elements within it.The last
time I recall coming up with something truly, stunningly original was when Iaccidentally burned some honey, and then decided to throw some rhubarb juice in
the pot.The result was something
remarkable, delicious, and unlike anything I’ve ever tasted.

And, I’ve never made it again.I should.I think even I’m a little afraid of bringing honey to the burning point,
though really the worst thing that could happen is that I would burn a little
honey. Well, maybe ruin a pan, fill the house with smoke.... Maybe my reluctance is wise.

Pheasant back mushrooms tops. They also go by the fanciful name "Dryad's Saddle." Dryads are not as common in our woods as they once were, so I haven't had a chance to examine their saddles lately....

Anyway:the story of
this pâté was this:I had a mess of
pheasant back mushrooms, which have been abundant this spring (they grow on
dead trees, including elms, so you’ll often find them while not finding
morels…).These mushrooms are a polypore,
like boletes, the family that includes porcini, but their flavor is very mild, just sort
of vaguely mushroomy.When young and
tender, their texture can be excellent, and then they’re fine just sliced and
sautéed.I like to do them in butter,
add a little garlic and a splash of soy sauce when they’re about done.

Tops and bottoms; note the tiny pores of this fungus whose Latin name is polyporous squamosus.

But as they mature, they become chewy, then inedibly
tough.Sometimes you can trim the outer
rim of a larger one and find it sufficiently tender.The thing I’ve learned is that if my pocket
knife blade doesn’t slide through the flesh almost effortlessly, don’t
bother.Move along, keep looking, you’ll
find more.On this evening most of my
pheasant backs could have been eaten simply sautéed, but that wasn’t working
for me as a topping for smorrebrod, those Danish-inspired open face sandwiches, which was the dinner plan.Pâté
came to mind, a sort of ersatz chopped liver.

I chopped the mushrooms pretty small, threw them in a pan
with some butter.As they released
moisture and started to shrink, I added chopped ramps.Then as cooking neared completion, I splashed
in some soy, for umami depth, and to make it more pâté-like, a glug of red wine
(I considered cognac or sherry, but thought that would be gilding the
lily).It was smelling pretty good at
this point—I had added dried thyme, and a pinch of chile flakes—but there wasn’t
a lot of it, and I also was dubious about what the texture of ground-up
pheasant backs alone would be like.

For both bulk and texture, wood nettles came to the
rescue.They’d just started coming up in
our woods, so they were in prime condition, edible and tender pretty much from
bottom to top.I roughly chopped a cup
or so, added them to the pan with a little water, steamed briefly.

After removing the lid from the pan and letting most the
liquid evaporate, I let the mixture cool, then transferred it to a mini-chop food
processor.From here I took the chopped
liver approach of working in as much butter as conscience would allow.Tasting along the way, adding some salt and a
good bit of black pepper, I was more and more impressed.

I’ll spare you the suspense and simply say that it was
excellent, and distinctive, though built on a familiar chassis.I will definitely make this again.Most other shrooms—button, oyster, hen of the
woods—could be used in it, and other greens, wild or not.WARNING: the recipe below is my best estimate
of the quantities of ingredients used.Since I considered it quite possible that the resulting dish would be
going in the trash rather than on the dinner table, I wasn’t writing things
down as I went along.But this is in
the ballpark, and y’all are clever; you’ll figure it out.

Melt 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet and add the
mushrooms and a pinch of salt. Cook over medium heat for 4 to 5 minutes, until
they start to give up some liquid and shrink a bit, then add the ramps. Sauté another 2-3
minutes, until the ramps are translucent and soft. Add the soy sauce, wine,
thyme, and chile. Cook, stirring, until the liquid is mostly gone. Add the wood
nettles and 1/4 cup water, cover, and simmer for 2 minutes.

Remove the lid and continue cooking until most of the liquid
is evaporated. Remove the pan from the heat and set it aside to cool.

When the mixture is no longer hot, transfer it to a mini
food processor or blender. Taste for salt and add if needed. Add a few grinds
of black pepper. Add a couple of teaspoons of butter and begin to process.
After a few seconds, stop the machine, scrape down the sides, and add a bit
more butter. Repeat this process until all the butter is incorporated, then
process for another 15-20 seconds. We're looking for a fairly smooth texture to
the pâté.

Taste again for seasoning, adding more salt or pepper if you
like. I like a pâté to be well seasoned. Transfer the pâté to a ramekin or
small jar, and serve as you would chopped chicken livers and the like--lovely
on crackers or toast rounds as a cocktail nosh or first course, or as one
element in a buffet or smorrebrod-type meal.

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Those of us who have been tuned in to the world of local and
seasonal eating for a while probably
have a complex, somewhat complicated relationship with ramps.Those “wild leeks” of springtime that have
perfumed loamy woodlands and Appalachian kitchens for generations in relative obscurity leapt into the culinary limelight 20 or so years ago, and have been
hogging center stage ever since.I
recall seeing them mentioned more and more often in reviews of New York restaurants
in the late 1990s, then noticing them for sale (at what seemed like an
exorbitant price) in Twin Cities food co-ops, and then came the big Ah-ha! moment when,
walking the banks of a favorite trout stream, I was brought up short by a
powerful garlic-chivey smell and looked around to find that I was standing in a
veritable field of ramps, their crushed leaves under my wading boots sending up what was, to me, an incredibly appetizing aroma.

Thus began my journey along what one might call the stages of grief/stations
of the cross for ramp lovers in the foodie 21st century.Fascination and infatuation at first
meeting, then falling big time for this humble but compelling new crush; then the skepticism,
eye-rolling at the sudden bandwagoning crowds, the farmers market shoppers
clamoring, the fancy chefs pandering; disillusionment—was I a fool to fall so
fast, so hard, for a love that had turned fickle and trendy?; then acceptance:
hey, it’s a stinking wild onion, it’s delicious, and when you pick it yourself,
it’s free, and ridiculously abundant when you know where to look—get over it.

I’ve reached acceptance now, indeed, a state of near ramps
nirvana, if you don’t mind my mixing gastro-religious metaphors in reference to
a common woodland weed.I went fishing
with my friend Tom during Minnesota’s
opening weekend for the regular (i.e., kill ‘em & grill ‘em, hook ‘em &
cook ‘em) trout season a week ago Sunday, and while the fishing was pretty
good, the foraging was even better.The
warm start to spring meant that the ramps were already well up and
sizable.We each took home a sack, and
I’ve been cooking with them nearly every day since.

While I’ve come up with a number of ramp-specific recipes
over the years, now I tend to treat them like any other allium (that is, onion
or lily family member, ramps being allium tricoccum), as a versatile
aromatic.So I’ve sautéed them to build
a nice base for ramen stock, thrown a handful into a quesadilla, strewn slivers
atop a pizza, sweated with other aromatics to flavor a pilaf—you get the idea.

Separate the ramp greens from the stem-bulb sections and set
aside.Slice the stem-bulb sections
crosswise into 1/4-inch pieces.

If using salt pork/pancetta, render the pork cubes gently
over medium-low heat until they have given up much of their fat and started to
brown.Remove the cubes from the pan and
set aside.Pour off—but save!—the fat,
and return 2 tablespoons to the pan.

If you don’t have salt pork or pancetta, heat 2 tablespoons
oil.

Turn the heat to medium-high and add the chopped ramps, then
the potato.Cook, stirring frequently,
until the potato begins to brown and the ramp pieces take on color—indeed, we
are looking for some of the ramp bits to become quite dark, even black.Just don’t burn the crap out of it so it all
turns ashy and bitter.

Getting good color.

When the potato is golden, the ramps nicely colored/charred,
add the chicken stock, then the cress, a couple good pinches of salt, and a few
grinds of pepper.Bring to a simmer,
cover, and cook at a gentle bubble for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Chiffonade (cut in thin ribbons) the ramp greens, and add
half of them to the soup at the end of the 10-minute simmer.Let the soup cool for a few minutes, then
purée, using either an immersion blender, a regular blender, or, with great
care and caution, a food processor.

The soup can be made to this point up to several days
ahead.Just before serving, reheat the
soup and serve garnished with the recrisped salt pork/pancetta cubes, croutons
from good, honest bread, perhaps a swirl of yogurt (I’m fond of goat yogurt),
and the remaining ramp leaf chiffonade, or as you please.

Thursday, April 7, 2016

It may very well be that we have reached peak birch here at
Bide-A-While.The sap goes on, though
sluggishly, with afternoon highs just scraping up into the mid-30s.Yesterday I gathered “ice birch”—the sap in
the bags and containers was half frozen, so I poured the liquid portion into my
collection container and left the ice behind, thinking that the liquid sap was
probably more concentrated in
sugar.It’s on the woodstove now, and
getting right down there.

I’ve also been reading a good bit about birch syrup making,
though sources are not abundant.There
are some commercial producers in Alaska,
and there have been some official studies of best practices.It’s all pretty interesting, and useful,
since I’ve been proceeding on a trial and error basis, leaning toward the
latter. This is a good compendium of articles on birch.

Pour the sap into a cauldron and light a small fire....

I would have thought that Magnus Nilsson’s massive new tome,
The Nordic Cook Book, would show some traditional or novel uses for birch
syrup; instead, it has no mention of it, at all.But in Nilsson’s Fäviken cookbook he does include
a “recipe” for birch syrup, along with a couple of interesting
observations.One, he notes that part of
the distinctive taste of birch syrup comes from the fact that not only the
sugars, but also the trace minerals found in the sap are concentrated in the
syrup making process—and since birch sap must be reduced twice, or more, as
much as maple sap, that’s bound to have an impact.I think it’s part of what contributes to the
savory edge that birch syrup has, even while it is intensely sweet.The other, technical note Nilsson makes is
that birch syrup contains carboxylic acid, which gives it “outstanding
freshness.”You can’t miss that acidic
edge in tasting birch syrup; I just didn’t know what the particular acid was
called.

Oddly, none of the recipes in the rest of the book includes
birch syrup.Nilsson says that he uses
it as one would balsamic vinegar, and I’d been thinking along similar lines,
wondering what birch syrup would taste like drizzled over vanilla ice cream, as
reduced balsamic is sometimes used.

Well, I need wonder no longer.I fixed up a little late breakfast snack of
vanilla ice cream (nothing special, just Wisconsin favorite Cedar Crest)
anointed with a couple teaspoons of birch syrup and then a few grains of coarse
gray sea salt.Oh, my.Why didn’t I think of this sooner?It was really superb, with elements both of a
root beer float and a butterscotch sundae.If you can get your hands on some birch syrup, this would be the perfect
way to end an elegant dinner party.Your
guests will surely have tasted nothing like it.This was actually my first foray into using birch syrup in a
sweet/dessert preparation.I’m eager for
more explorations.

If you’re interested in making your own birch syrup, you
should pay attention to just how big an impact the way you reduce the sap makes on
the final product.In my first attempts
I had rather a lot of sap, and I started the reduction in my homemade
evaporator (the legendary half-assed sap contraption).It really boiled hard, and sap caramelized
(not to say burned, though probably
some did) on the sides of the pan as the sap reduced, and this caramel got
washed back into the sap, adding color and a variety of flavors.As a result, that syrup was molasses-dark and
very strong in flavor.One of the
articles I found online cautioned against making birch syrup this way, saying
it would come out with a scorched flavor.But I don’t think my dark syrup tastes bad or scorched.It is very, very different from the lighter
syrups I’m making this year, but it has its uses, too.

This year, with moderate sap flow and thus manageable
amounts of sap to deal with, I’ve done all the reduction inside, first on the
woodstove, then on the range, as previously mentioned.And then with a few gallons I did in entirely
on the woodstove, so that it never boiled at all, just slowly, slowly reduced
as the water evaporated from the sap.You can see what a difference that makes in the color of the final
syrup.The taste, as well, is mellower,
but it still has that fresh acidity and good complexity.

Three 2016 batches. I should start a paint line of birch syrup hues....

Fun stuff!I feel
like a bit of a pioneer in upper Midwest small
batch birch syrup making.If anyone else
out there has tried his or her hand at this, I’d love to here about your
experiences.I will keep the home fires
burning in the ever busy woodstove, and carry on with kitchen explorations, as
well.If you have any thoughts about how
to deploy birch syrup in cooking, I love to hear those, as well.

Monday, April 4, 2016

One swallow does not a summer make, the saying goes, nor
does a warm, sunny day or two in March guarantee that spring is here to
stay. April came in with cold, blustery
winds, lashing snow squalls, all kinds of drama from the skies. Then a day of mellow warmth, but overnight, a
hard freeze, and in the forecast, more wintry weather. It makes for lively conversation at the dump
or the hardware store, but overall, it’s pretty much same as it ever was. Maybe there are actually regions
where spring slides mildly into place in a calm and predictable progression,
but this ain’t one of them….

However: there has
been enough spring-like weather that the ground has thawed, and warmed enough
to push forth a few greens shoots.
Chives are always the first things to come back in the herb garden, and
stinging nettles take the vanguard among the wild edibles. I was able to gather a handful of each last
evening, and we added them to a simple dinner comprised of recombined
leftovers: lentils, some chickpeas in a
spicy broth, to which I added some of the excellent German wieners that we
picked up at the Chetek Café.

I started by
dicing up and rendering off a some homemade salt pork, and to the drippings
added diced potato, carrot, some chopped celery and shallot. Browned off the sliced wieners and then in
went the lentils, chickpeas and broth.
Simmered for 10 minutes, until the potatoes were just cooked through. Then just before serving I brought it back up
to a simmer and added the chopped nettles—baby nettle tips, really, the most
delectable kind of nettles.

I enjoyed the fact that lentils and nettles are almost anagrams. And we enjoyed immensely a warm and
comforting plate of food that far transcended any usual notion of
leftovers. I sprinkled some chopped
chives over the soup, and they added a fresh, vibrant pop—the first
chives of the year are definitely the best.
They had me thinking a baked potato dinner later in the week might be a
good idea.

Chives also went into a simple salad dressing along with—get
this—Wisconsin-grown Meyer lemon. You
read that right. On a quick getaway to Madison this past weekend we visited the DaneCounty
winter farmers market. And while this indoor
market is a tiny fraction the size of the magnificent summer market that
sprawls all around the capitol square, its grass-roots populism making a
mockery of the craven shenanigans that miserably unfold beneath the capitol
dome (ahem), there was still lots of great meat, cheese, and produce. We didn’t buy a lot, but came away with some
beautiful lettuce and a Meyer lemon that we purchased from a honey vendor. It came from a tree that I think he said was
planted in 1964, in a pot, of course, to shelter indoors during the Wisconsin winter. Not
exactly the kind of thing you expect to find at a northern winter farmers
market, but a lovely surprise. We were lucky to be at the market early enough to score one.

The first green harvests are always such a delight, even if
they are small, scarcely more than garnish.
A chef writing in the New York Times recently, trying to sell the idea
that hard, pink, winter tomatoes were worth your money and cooking efforts,
went so far as to argue that we live in a “post-seasonal world." Uhn-uhn, chef, you’re wrong. Maybe you live in a non-seasonal food world, but
only because you’re not looking, or trying, hard enough. Out here in the frigid sticks, the "seasonal world" is pretty hard to avoid. Not that I would want to.

Friday, April 1, 2016

March is a difficult month.
It promises spring, but often belongs equally, if not more so, to
winter. It makes you think of gardening,
of growing things, but at our latitude all you can really do is pile potting
mix into little pots, get the seeds of the earliest, cool season plants
going—onions, leeks, lettuce, some herbs.
There are days of warm sun that tempt you to get out and till a plot,
but when you turn one clump of frigid, sodden soil, you turn quickly to plan
B. Never mind, there’s always that
minefield of winter-weathered dog treasures to clear, a perennial March
activity that more or less sums up the spirit of the season….

Maybe this is why a lot of my March days since moving to the
country have been spent drilling little holes in trees, gathering the cold,
slightly sweet water that weeps out, and cooking it down to incomparable
sweetness—tree syrups, both maple and birch, and even a bit of black
walnut. It’s nature’s little consolation
prize for enduring these purgatorial weeks, equal parts reward and
distraction. Though sap season comes
around every year, it’s always a little bit different. And this year has been more different than
most.

People on Twitter tend to get a little excited, you may have
noticed if you frequent that world. I
think it’s the ability to communicate instantaneously with friends,
acquaintances, and strangers alike, all across the planet, that tends to heighten reactions
exponentially. This year I saw a slew of
ecstatic tweets proclaiming that the weather for the week ahead looked perfect
for maple sugaring…in the middle of February.
But the trees weren’t looking at the daily highs and lows to decide how
to proceed; no, the trees were still frozen solid.

I forget exactly which March Surprise this was; we had a few....

But it did transpire that warmish weather continued—there
were days with record highs, with record high lows—and I did wind up tapping a
few maples, as well as the big box elder (a type of maple) in our yard, and our
one majestic black walnut tree, on February 21, because what the heck. And within a few days I did have a little
sap, emphasis on the little. The trees
ran sluggishly for about a day, then the weather turned seasonably cold
again. Six trees gave me about one
gallon of sap, which didn’t take too long to simmer down on the wood stove into
a half cup of syrup; and so began the season of passive, micro-batch syruping,
which continues to this day, as I reduce another five gallons of birch sap on
the woodstove and then on the range top.
I’m not going to wind up with a vast reserve of syrup, but then, I don’t
really need one. The birch, especially,
is sparingly deployed, maybe a tablespoon or so at a time, in salad dressings
and marinades, mainly for grilled pork.

Birch syrup on the final reduction.

With small amounts of sap—5 to 8 gallons at a time—I didn’t
bother firing up the labor-and-smoke-intensive half-assed sap contraption I’ve
used in years past. Instead, since we’re
still stoking the woodstove every day, at least in the mornings and evenings,
I’ve been setting a hotel pan and our Big Blue Le Creuset dutch oven on the
stove and letting the sap slowly reduce to a manageable amount, at which point
I boil the dickens out of it on our kitchen range top. You may wonder, Isn’t that a lot of humidity
to be adding to your indoor environment?
Aren’t you producing great clouds of water vapor, steaming the wallpaper
off the walls, and covering everything with a sticky film?

Legitimate concerns, to which the answers are: yes, I guess
it’s a fair amount of humidity, but things are generally dry this time of year,
so we haven’t noticed any issues; and as we have no wallpaper on our walls,
none to steam off! Finally, no, our walls
and ceiling bear no resemblance to a movie theater floor after being deluged
with Mountain Dew during the kiddie matinee. The whole idea, see, is that the sugary part
remains in the pot as the water evaporates.
Even if some of the sugar escaped a furiously boiling pot, I don’t think
it would go very far, the sugar molecules presumably being a good deal heavier
than water vapor.

The long and short of it is this: I think it’s a myth, one which I myself may
have helped to promulgate in the past, that cooking sap down inside has these undesirable
side effects. When I’m doing the fast,
final boiling, I’ve got the vent hood running, a couple of windows cracked, and
there’s no noticeable change in our indoor weather. Also, I’ve kept checking the walls near the
stove, the inside of the vent hood, for that legendary sticky film—none to be
found. Now, if I had a hundred, or even
40, 20 gallons to deal with at a time, I probably wouldn’t do it inside. But with these small batches, it works
fine. It’s also really nice to get
double duty out of the woodstove, heat for the home on chilly days, tasty
syrups for the kitchen.

The Puddock hard at work, multi-tasking.

It has taken me a while, years, in fact, to start to feel
comfortable using the birch syrup. It’s
completely unlike anything else I have in my pantry, so it didn’t slide easily
into any particular niche. People ask me
what it’s like, and I can only give vague analogies or general descriptions
that don’t capture the essence of the thing.
It’s dark, dark as molasses, and it has some molasses qualities, but
it’s not thick—in its body, its “mouth feel,” it’s lighter and thinner than
maple syrup. And banish any
thought that it’s like maple syrup just because it’s sugar that comes from a
tree. While maple syrup is composed of
sucrose, like plain old granulated sugar, birch syrup is glucose and fructose
(I think I’ve got that right). The
flavor of birch syrup is much…edgier.
There’s acidity to it, and often a little intriguing bitterness. It’s very aromatic, with sweet, menthol,
spicy, root beer type notes. Really, if
you’re interested in distinctive foods, particularly distinctive northern
foods, you’ve got to try it.

If you have access to a few birch trees, it’s easy enough to
get, as long as, you know, nature cooperates.
You tap the trees exactly as you would for maple syrup, drill a little
hole about 1 ½” deep, insert a tap, hang a bag, bucket, what have you, or
attached food grade tubing to allow the sap to run into a container. Then when you have a quantity, you cook it
down. And cook it down. And cook it down…. Because, the thing about birch sap: it’s generally less than half as concentrated
in sugars as maple sap. So if it
typically takes from 30 to 40 gallons of maple sap to produce a gallon of
syrup, with birch we’re talking about a roughly 80:1 ration. Breaking that down into the smaller batches
I’ve been doing, 10 gallons of sap gave
me one scant pint of syrup.

Syrup assortment: the small, very light one at center front is black walnut.

I’ve said
this before, and I’ll say it again: you
can look at the numbers, even the relatively reasonable maple ratios, and think
you get it, but until you actually do it, you can’t possibly understand. Still, it’s worth it. I go to a lot of trouble, tapping the trees,
hauling the heavy sap down the hill (luckily I do get to haul it down the
hill), cooking the sap down and down and down, but at the end I’ve got lovely
local products to work with through the rest of the year.

And here’s a handy fact of nature: the birch trees tend to start running as the
maple run is coming to an end. So if you
have access to both kinds of trees, you can move your tapping equipment over to
the birches when you’ve had your fill of maple sugaring, and the trees start to
break bud, rendering the sap bitter and unusable. Making syrup, especially birch syrup, is a labor of love,
and a rite of the season, a perennial celebration of those immemorial cycles. A lot of work and time, sure, but hey, it beats picking up dog crap….

· * As a marinade for grilled or smoked meat: it’s great brushed on a pork chop, which I
then season simply with salt and pepper.
For some reason, the birch syrup doesn’t burn on the grill the way maple
syrup or honey would. Perhaps because
the sugar composition is different. I’ve
also used it on grilled game birds, particularly woodcock. And I’ve used it in the cure for smoked duck
breast and venison with wonderful results.

* In salad dressings: just a teaspoon or two in a vinaigrette
really makes its presence felt, and brings that distinctive, aromatic birch
flavor to any kind of salad.

· * In cocktails:
1 teaspoon birch syrup, a few drops of lemon juice, 2 ounces Scotch,
bourbon, or rye, stir it up, add ice, garnish with a lemon twist. Or for the lemon substitute blood oranges in season
for a cocktail I’ve dubbed “The Nasty Bruise.”
For a refreshing non-alcoholic drink, stir a couple teaspoons of birch
syrup into sparkling water, add ice and perhaps a squeeze of lemon juice.

Those are the main applications I’ve found for birch
syrup. I’m having a decent year with the
birch this spring, so I’ll have a good supply to experiment with through the
year. I repeat: a little goes a long way with birch syrup.

Birch-Mustard Seed Carrot Salad

Two servings.

1 large or 2 small carrots

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 teaspoons yellow mustard seeds

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 tablespoon birch syrup

1 small garlic clove sliced very thin

A bit of chiffonade leek or scallion green, optional

Salt and pepper

Peel the carrots and slice them very thin—1/8” or less. A Benriner mandoline is handy for this—watch
your fingers!

Heat the oil over medium low and add the mustard seeds. Stir them around until they just start to
pop, then remove from the heat. Add the lemon juice, birch syrup, and garlic and stir well. Pour the dressing over the carrots, add a
couple good pinches of salt and a few grinds of pepper, and stir well. Let the salad sit for at least a half hour or
up to several hours before serving.
Sprinkle the optional leek or scallion greens over top just before
serving.

Maple syrup variation:
in place of the birch syrup, use 2 teaspoons of maple syrup and ½
teaspoon of Dijon mustard--I haven't actually tried this variation, but I don't see how it could be bad.

Here’s a brief record of weather, phenology, and such since
syrup season began at the end of February:

Feb 27 record highs

Feb 29 1st ½ cup maple syrup done

March 1, “brittle and chill” and the trees aren’t producing
sap

March 4, 3 inches of snow

March 8 red-winged blackbirds back & a scant half cup of
black walnut syrup finished from 56 ounces sap—that’s all for black walnut, it
didn’t produce enough sap after that to bother with

3/10 snow’s all gone and Mary notes, looking out the kitchen
window, “It’s not winter anymore,” to which I reply, “It’s not spring,
either. It’s mud season.”

Thursday, March 3, 2016

I'll be leading a session on sourdough bread basics at this year's Hay River Transition Initiative's Traditional and Green Skills Event , this Saturday, March 5, so I thought it would be wise to revisit the process of starting and nurturing a traditional sourdough starter, or levain, as the French call it. My starter is now 13 years old, so obviously it's been a while since I went through the whole process. I've got a sort of time-lapse series of photos below, showing the starter progressing from a rather unremarkable mixture of rye flour and water to a still unremarkable, but bubbly, mixture of rye and wheat flour and water teeming with microbial life in the form of natural wild yeasts and various beneficial (or, at least, not harmful) bacteria, i.e., sourdough starter. Or so I assume. You'd need a microbiologist to analyze it in order to know exactly what's in there, but of course for home bread baking purposes, we take a pragmatic approach.

Perhaps best to start with a definition. Sourdough bread is bread that is leavened--made to rise--with a starter culture (see above, bubbling, microbial) rather than with storebought yeast, whether cakes of fresh yeast or active dry yeast, also called baker's yeast. The starter may be one maintained as I describe here, or it may just be a
lump of dough saved from the current batch of bread, used to leaven the
next batch, from which another lump is saved, to leaven the next batch.... A starter is, in brief, a homemade yeast factory.

Sourdough breads are different from "normal" yeasted breads in that they generally take much longer to proof (rise), are usually denser and moister, keep very well, and may or may not have a noticeably sour flavor. The fact that sourdough breads may not be particularly sour points up one problem with the terminology. I sometimes refer to these types of bread as "naturally leavened," but this isn't perfect, either, since the types of yeast you purchase are not unnatural, not at all. The French understand that pain au levain just means bread leavened with a starter culture, but we lack a convenient, clear term for this. Never mind: as long as you understand that the "sourdough" bread you bake in Wisconsin or Minnesota or wherever isn't going to taste like that loaf you bought on Fisherman's Wharf while vacationing in San Francisco, we should be fine.

Starter is NOT "an ingredient"

The main piece of advice I always give to folks just starting out with natural leaven bread baking is to pay deliberate, concerted attention to maintaining the health and vigor of your starter. The starter is a living thing that requires care and nurturing, rather like a moist, microbial child. (Which, come to think of it, could well describe many regular, human children, as well.) If you think of the starter as an ingredient in the bread, like salt, honey, flour, what have you, and assume you can just chuck X amount of poorly maintained starter into a dough and it will magically produce wonderful bread, well, that's not going to happen. You'll be disappointed, and discouraged, and probably stop try to make sourdough breads, assuming it's just too hard; it's not.

But, if you take the approach that starter is not an ingredient in the ordinary sense, but rather that it is the bread itself, in nascent, incipient form, then you'll have a much, much better chance of success. Starting with a relatively small amount of lively starter, you build up a dough which really is just an expansion of the starter. Those microorganisms that thrive in a healthy starter will likewise colonize the whole dough through the processes of mixing, kneading, proofing, and finally baking, and they are what leaven the dough--make it rise--as well as providing that distinctive sourdough flavor and texture.

Ignore your starter at your peril. Take good care of it, and it will make you very happy. Below I'll talk about my general routine for maintaining and baking with a sourdough starter. To begin, here's how you get your own going.

Starting a starter

There are lots of ways to get a starter culture going.Some people recommend using apples, bananas,
cooked potatoes, even Champagne grapes to capture and nurture wild yeast.You can even use a bit of commercial yeast to
get things going—over time the wild yeasts that exist in the flour with which
you feed the starter, and in the air around us, will give their unique
qualities to the starter.

I favor a method of culturing a starter whichI like it for its simplicity, and because
it’s so true to the basic nature of bread, using only flour and water.

Go to the co-op and get a few pounds of organic rye
flour—I use the kind distributed by Whole Grain Milling of Welcome, MN; it’s
available at most co-ops in western Wisconsin and the Twin Cities.Rye flour is excellent for
starting a culture because it’s high in sugar and tends to have a lot of
natural yeast in it

Day 1—In a
glass or ceramic bowl (don’t use metal or plastic--unless it's NSF food service grade plastic, which in fact is what I keep my starter in now) mix ¾ cup of rye flour with
½ cup of filtered or untreated well water.The mixture
will be like thick porridge.Cover with
plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place—70 to 75 degrees—for two to three days.(With the light on and the door ajar, our
oven is right around 75 degrees.)After
two days the mixture should have swelled up a little, and it should have a bit
of a sour smell.If this hasn’t happened
in two days, leave it another day.Note:Sometimes the flour can go moldy during this
stage.If you see mold on the mixture,
throw it out and start again, making sure you use a very clean bowl.

Below is the mixture after two days. You can see that it has puffed up a bit--note the slight separation between the bowl and the edge of the dough. It may smell a bit sour, or it may just smell sort of grainy, porridgy. As long as it doesn't smell horrible, poopy or dumpsterish, you're on your way.

Day 3: When the mixture is slightly swelled and perhaps a bit sour-smelling, discard half the mixture.To the half remaining, add ½ cup of organic rye flour and ½ cup filtered
water, mix well, cover with plastic wrap and put it back in its warm place for
24 hours. [NOTE: The reason we discard some of the starter in these early stages is that we need to keep adding flour, but don't want to wind up with too much starter. If you find this instruction loathsome, perhaps find a friend or three or four to go in with you, and you'll all wind up with starter, and waste very little. This concept is the basis of "friendship bread," a sort of dough-based chain letter. Remember those?]

Below, the starter on day four, loosening up as the culture proliferates, starting to bubble. It should smell a bit sour now.

Day 4—By
now the mixture will be smelling quite sour, and may look a bit bubbly.Throw half of it away again, and this time
add ¾ cup of water, and ½ cup each rye and unbleached all-purpose white
flour.Mix, cover, let sit another 24
hours.

Below, the starter on Day 5, after its first wheat flour meal. It's quite liquid and bubbly. Exciting! We're close to having a usable sourdough starter!

Day 6—Don’t
discard any starter this time.Add 2
cups water, ½ cup rye flour, and 1 ½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour (you may need to move it to a larger container).Your starter should now be ready to use, but will benefit from a couple more refreshings.Store it in a glass container with a
tight-fitting lid in the refrigerator.

Below, the starter on Day 6, much like Day 5, only moreso. Very bubbly, developing a nice sour aroma. A mature, well refreshed sourdough starter has an appealing winy or vinegary smell to it. Old starter in need of refreshing will smell acrid and unappetizing--it sometimes reminds me of sniffing a can of wall paint. That's not to say the smelly starter can't be saved, only to stress that a well maintained starter smells good, appetizing.

In the photo below, you can kind of maybe sort of see the texture of a very active starter. It's aerated, light, almost mousse-like.

Moved to a larger container from the bowl I started it in, the new starter is fermenting robustly:

Here's why you go to the trouble of maintaining a sourdough starter. I refreshed it a couple more times after Day 6 before baking, and below are the first loaves I baked with the new starter, mostly unbleached white flour, a bit of rye, whole wheat bread flour, and a handful of cornmeal:

Maintaining the Starter

I have a sort of idiosyncratic program for feeding my starter, which involves three different flours. It's a little more complicated than some methods, but I've done it for so long now, and have been so happy with the results, I'm not changing now. The basic method is this: To each 3 cups of existing starter, add 2 cups of water and 2 cups of flour. That flour may be all-purpose or whole wheat. I've not experimented with an all-rye starter, but that can be done, as well. I'm sure the Internet will provide abundant advice. Whatever you do, don't use bleached flour, because, 1) It's gross, and 2) Doesn't that sort of defeat the whole purpose of an endeavor like this?

My personal method is this: as above, 3 cups existing starter, 2 cups water, then: 1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour; 1/2 cup whole wheat bread flour (from Whole Grain Milling), 1/2 cup organic rye flour. Since almost all my breads contain at least some whole grains, I like having a slightly grainy starter, but I also find it too complicated to maintain more than one starter. I honestly have no idea how I came up with this formula, only that I fixed upon it a long time ago, and it works.

After I have refreshed the starter, I let it sit at room temperature for a few hours or overnight, until bubbles start to form on the surface again, then refrigerate it.

About "the sponge"

A common technique in sourdough baking is to add one step prior to mixing up the final dough. This is generally known as a sponge. You can look at it as a final refreshing of the starter, but this time you add flour(s) specific to the type of bread you'll be making. For example, in my recipe for a dense European-style rye bread, I combine starter, water, and rye flour only. I mix this up the night before making up the final dough. My whole wheat sourdough starts with a sponge of starter, water, whole wheat bread flour, and a bit of rye. To make the dough, I add some more whole wheat flour and salt, finish by adding all-purpose unbleached to create a workable dough (though you could use all whole wheat).

The sponge method ensures good, vigorous fermentation, and shortens the proofing time for the dough. It may mean the final bread is a bit less sour than if you mixed the dough without a sponge. That's either better or worse depending on your taste. With an overnight sponge I would make up the dough at, say, 8:00 a.m., and the dough would be ready to loaf up at 1:00 or 2:00 p.m., ready to bake at 2:00 or 3:00--a lot depends, of course, on air temperatures, even relative humidity, the particular starter, etc. Without a sponge the dough will need to proof probably twice as long. You can try different approaches and see what works for you.

Establish a baking schedule

To get the best results from baking with sourdough starter, you have to plan ahead.If you want to bake on Saturday, for example,
you should take your starter out of the fridge on Thursday night.(Your starter will probably
look pretty unappetizing at this point, with some scummy-looking stuff on top,
perhaps a layer of yellow or grayish water underneath, and the flour all sunk to the bottom.Overnight, as the mixture warms up and the
yeast becomes active, it should rise up in a uniform, bubbly mass.)

Let it come to room temperature
overnight.Friday morning refresh the
starter as described above—stir the starter and pour some off, leaving 3 cups;
add the water and flour; mix well.Friday night you may want to make a “sponge” for your dough, which is basically another refreshing of the dough, but with a flour blend specific to the type of bread you want to make.Saturday morning you’ll mix the dough, and
Saturday afternoon you’ll bake it.

If your starter hasn’t been
refreshed for more than a week, take it out Wednesday (for Saturday baking) and
refresh it twice—Thursday morning and again Friday morning—before making the
sponge on Friday night. It’s best to refresh your starter at
least once a week, though you can leave it in the fridge for two weeks and
maybe a little longer, and still bring it back to life.

When your starter has sat around unattended for a few days, you may see a thin liquid layer at the top. No worries. Just stir it into the starter and carry on.

There may also appear a sort of crust on top of the starter. If it's quite thick, I sometimes lift it up and throw it away. If not too thick, I just stir it into the starter along with any accumulated liquid.

Natural leaven bread baking has inspired many volumes of
theory, recipes, and mystical reflection.I can’t cover all aspects of the process here, but fortunately there are
lots of books you can refer to.Sometimes
the experts contradict each other on the “best” way to do something.Some books take a very precise, almost
scientific approach, while others are almost like religious tracts.Here are some books that I’ve found useful:

A Mixed Leaven Loaf

Especially in a chilly winter home, adding a bit of active dry yeast to your sourdough can give a more satisfying result. In no way do I consider this "cheating." It's just another way of producing delicious bread. It also shortens the process, allowing you to mix up a dough in the morning, bake it in late afternoon, and have lovely fresh bread for dinner.

This batch makes about 3 pounds of dough, enough for 3 smaller or 2 large loaves. These instructions are generally for free-form loaves baked on a stone. It's the method that works best for this sort of dough.

Put the water in a large mixing bowl and sprinkle the yeast over the top. Let sit for 5 minutes. Add the starter, salt, and honey. Stir in the rye and whole wheat bread flour, and 2 cups of the all-purpose. Gradually add more flour to form a dough, not too soft, not too firm. Knead the dough very briefly, just enough to bring it all together. Then let the dough rest for 15 to 20 minutes. This resting period is important, as it allows the flours to uniformly absorb the liquid. It also makes the dough lots easier to work with once you come back to it.

After 15 to 20 minutes, bring the dough onto a floured countertop and knead until you have a smooth, elastic dough--it should bounce back brightly when you poke it with your finger. Add flour as required to keep the dough from sticking to your hands or the work surface, but add just a bit at a time. The kneading should take no more than 3 or 4 minutes, if that.

Return the dough to the bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and let rise for 4 to 6 hours, until the dough shows definite signs of rising--it may not have doubled in size, but will now be soft and retain the imprint of a finger poke.

Divide and shape the dough as you prefer, and let rise another 1 1/2 to 2 hours--rising times depend HUGELY on ambient temperature; in a 62-degree winter home the dough will rise much more slowly than in a summer kitchen at 80 degrees. Refrigerating the dough for part of the rising time is a good option if room temp is too warm. Slower rising generally = better flavor and texture.

Preheat your oven with baking stone in place to 475. When the oven is hot, move your loaves to a cornmeal-dusted peel and slash the surface as you like. Slide the loaves onto the stone.

Adding steam to the oven helps create a good crust and promotes maximum expansion of the loaves. Some people use a spray bottle to add water a couple of times in the first 10 minutes of baking. I have sacrificed an old cast iron skillet which I keep on the bottom rack of my oven, a few inches below the stone, and I slide 5 or 6 ice cubes into the skillet at the start of baking. With this method, you don't have to open the door again during early stage of baking.

Bake the bread at 475 for 10 to 15 minutes, until it just starts to brown, then reduce the heat to 430 and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, until the bread is nicely, uniformly browned, and the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. NOTE: Baking times and temps will vary HUGELY from one oven to another. Get to know your appliance, and adjust accordingly.

When the bread is done, cool on a wire rack.

Here's a recipe for a basic crusty, hearty loaf. This makes about 2 pounds of dough:

Basic Small Batch "White" Sourdough

In a large mixing bowl combine all the ingredients EXCEPT the all-purpose flour. Add 1 cup of the AP flour and mix well, then add more AP flour a bit at a time until you have a soft but workable dough--i.e., not too sticky, not too stiff.

Proceed with proofing, shaping, baking as described in the Mixed Leaven recipe.

_____________________________________________________

And here are a couple of recipes I put together for sourdough classes I taught a number of years ago, based on breads I made a lot during my farmers market baking career (aka "The Real Bread Years"). They are probably overly elaborate, possibly redundant in some areas, and possibly even contradictory to other things I may have said. But, they will work. Offered here without apology. Well, with a little apology. The batches are kind of huge, probably best to halve them.

European Sourdough Rye

4 cups water

1 ½ cups refreshed starter

3 ½ cups rye flour

In a large bowl, mix the
water, starter, and rye flour to make a sponge.Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand at least 8 hours or
overnight.

1 ½ Tbl salt

1 cup whole wheat bread
flour

5 cups unbleached
all-purpose white flour, plus extra for kneading

1 tsp vegetable oil (canola,
corn, sunflower, etc.—not olive oil)

Cornmeal for dusting the
peel

Add the salt, whole wheat
flour, and 2 cups all-purpose flour to the sponge and mix well.Add another 2 cups all-purpose flour, mix
again.Add the 5th cup
gradually, and when the dough is firm enough to knead place it on a floured
counter or table.

Knead, adding all-purpose
flour as required, for 2 to 3 minutes.Allow
the dough to rest for 10 minutes.Put
the bowl in the sink and fill it with water to soak.

Knead the dough for another
5 minutes or so, adding flour very sparingly as needed, until the dough is
smooth and elastic—it should bounce back almost immediately when you poke in
your finger a half-inch.(Note:the whole grains in this dough mean that it
will not be “smooth” the way a white dough is smooth; it should be uniform in
texture, not lumpy.)

Wash the mixing bowl, dry
it, and oil it with the 1 tsp vegetable oil.

Knead the dough for another
minute.Place it in the oiled bowl, then
turn the dough over with the oiled side up.Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, place it in a warm (70 to 80 degree)
spot and let the dough rise till roughly doubled, 3 to 4 hours.

Divide the dough—however
many loaves you want to make, it’s up to you.This recipe will make 4 good-sized loaves, or 3 big loaves, or more
smaller loaves, as you choose.

Preheat your oven to 450
degrees.If using a baking stone, place
the stone in the oven before preheating.Place a small cast iron skillet on the bottom of the oven, or on the
bottom rack. (Note:A cast iron skillet used
for this purpose will be ruined for any other use; we’ll be putting water and
ice cubes in the skillet to create steam in the oven during baking.If you have an electric oven, you may throw
the ice cubes and water directly on the bottom of the oven, though this will
discolor and slightly warp the floor of your oven over time.)

Shape the loaves.Place on a peel or cutting board dusted with
cornmeal.Cover with lightly oiled
plastic wrap or a plastic cover.Let
rise 35 to 50 minutes, till the dough appears well-risen, though it may not
double in size at this stage.

Place the loaves on a wooden
peel lightly dusted with cornmeal.

Before baking you may, if
you like, lightly dust the loaves with flour sifted through a sieve.

With a single-edge razor
blade or very sharp knife, slash the top of the loaves—one long slash down the
middle, or three diagonal slashes along an oval loaf, or any pattern you like,
as long as it is fairly regular.

Have ready 2 ice cubes and ¼
cup water.

If using a baking stone, place
the stone in the oven before preheating.Place a small cast iron skillet on the bottom of the oven, or on the
bottom rack. (Note:A cast iron skillet used
for this purpose will be ruined for any other use; we’ll be putting water and
ice cubes in the skillet to create steam in the oven during baking.)

Slide the loaves from the
peel onto the preheated baking stone. Toss the ice cubes,
then the water into the cast iron skillet—careful
not to scald yourself with the steam!

Bake at 450 for 10 minutes,
then turn the loaves around in the oven for even baking and turn the oven down
to 425.Bake another 15 to 25 minutes
more, depending on the size of the loaves, until the loaves are nicely browned
and sound hollow when thumped on the bottom (an instant-read meat thermometer
will read 200 degrees at the center of a fully baked loaf)

Cool the loaves on a rack
when done.Allow to cool at least 1 hour
before slicing.

Variations:This dough
is an excellent base for fruit or nut breads.You can make three kinds of bread from one batch of dough.

Bake one third of the dough
plain.

For Walnut Bread:After the first rising:Flatten one-third of the dough into a large
rectangle.Sprinkle with 8 ounces
roughly chopped toasted walnuts.Press
the nuts into the dough, roll the dough up and kneadfor a minute or two to distribute the nuts.

For Fig Bread: After the
first rising:Flatten one-third of the
dough into a large rectangle.Sprinkle
with 8 ounces roughly chopped dried figs.Press the pieces of fig into the dough, roll the dough up and knead for
a minute or two to distribute the fruit.

You can also use raisins,
dried apricots, currants, or a combination.One of our popular breads is a “Very Fruity”
loaf made with figs, dried apricots and currants.Our Raisin Rye is made with black and golden
raisins and currants—the “currants” I’m talking about here are the tiny raisins
called currants or sometimes Zante currants, not the red or black currant fruit
used to make jelly.

Organic Sourdough Wheat

1 ½ cups starter

4cups water

½ cup organic rye flour

3 cups organic whole wheat
bread flour

Make the sponge:Mix all the ingredients above in a large bowl.Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at
least 8 hours, or overnight.

To the sponge add 2 cups
whole wheat bread flour, salt, and 2 cups organic white flour.Mix well.Add white flour a cup or so at a time, and mix till the dough is too
stiff to mix with a spoon.

Turn the dough out onto your
kneading surface.Knead for 2 minutes,
adding flour as needed.Let dough rest
for 10 minutes.Put the bowl in the sink
and fill it with water to soak.

Knead the dough for about 5
minutes, again adding flour sparingly as needed.At the end of this kneading the dough should
be smooth and elastic—it should bounce back immediately when you poke it with
your finger.

Wash the bowl, dry it, and
oil it with the 1 tsp vegetable oil.

Knead the dough for another
minute or two, put it in the bowl, turn it oiled side up, cover with plastic
wrap and let rise till doubled in size, 4 to 5 hours.

Shaping and proofing the
loaves:This bread is best in fairly
large loaves.Divide the dough into 3 or
4 pieces.Form into rounds or ovals.Set them to rise on a peel, cutting board, or
baking sheet dusted with cornmeal—or in floured bannetons.Cover with lightly oiled plastic wrap or a
plastic cover.Let rise in a warm place
for about 1 ½ hours, till well risen.

Preheat your oven to 450
degrees.If using a baking stone, place
the stone in the oven before preheating.Place a small cast iron skillet on the bottom of the oven, or on the
bottom rack. (Note:A cast iron skillet used
for this purpose will be ruined for any other use; we’ll be putting water and
ice cubes in the skillet to create steam in the oven during baking.)

Just before baking, slash
the top of the loaves with a single-edge razor blade or very sharp knife.Have ready ¼ cup of water and 2 ice cubes.

Slide the loaves off the
peel onto the stone.Toss the ice cubes,
then the water into the cast iron skillet—careful
not to scald yourself with the steam!

Bake at 450 for 20 minutes.Lower the heat to 425, turn the loaves around
in the oven for even baking, and bake another 12 to 15 minutes, till the loaves
are very brown and sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.Cool on a rack.This bread should cool for at least 2 hours
before slicing.

Optional refrigeration method:Chilling
the dough makes it rise more slowly, and will give the bread a chewier texture,
crunchier crust, and, with natural leaven breads, a more pronounced sour
taste.French bakeries often proof their
bread at low temperatures for 18 hours or even longer.You can get close to this quality by chilling
the dough in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours, or overnight.After removing the dough from the
refrigerator punch it down and knead it for a minute or two.Allow it to sit at room temperature for 2 to
4 hours to warm up—this will depend on how cold it was to start with.Divide into loaves as above, then let the
loaves proof a bit longer than above, 2 hours or more, so the dough has come to
cool room temperature before baking.Bake as above.

About the Trout Caviar Book:

A Minnesota Book Award Finalist in General Non-Fiction & Northeast Minnesota Book Award Nominee.

"My favorite cookbook of the year is... Trout Caviar: Recipes from a Northern Forager, an astonishing trove of recipes using the things that grow so well here... . If it catches on it could transform northern cooking in our day."Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl, James Beard Award-Winning writer and food editor of Minnesota Monthly magazine

"...the most original and beautifully written local cookbook of the year.”Rick Nelson, food writer and restaurant critic, Star Tribune Newspaper of the Twin Cities

Trout Caviar: Recipes from a Northern Forager (Minnesota Historical Society Press) is now available. It contains over 150 recipes from woods and stream, garden and market, as well as essays on foraging, cooking, and gardening; smoking basics, fun with fermentation, and much more.

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About Trout Caviar

Trout Caviar is an online journal that celebrates local, seasonal foods and the people who grow, raise, make, sell, cook and savor them.
Our local foods are those that come from Minnesota and Wisconsin, but we're devotees of authentic flavors wherever they arise. I'm Brett Laidlaw and I write the text and take the photos seen here. My co-conspirator in this endeavor is Mary Eckmeier, wife, Pastry Goddess, Plate-Licker, Soup-Smiler. We used to run a home-based farmers market bakery called Real Bread, currently in hiatus.
Bide-A-Wee, that's our tiny off-grid cabin on 20 rustic acres in beautiful northern Dunn County, Wisconsin.